Chapter 9: Resistance, resilience and relationship: Indigenous older adults and aging in the Canadian city

This week, in this chapter, our authors: Lauren Brooks-Cleator and Sean Hillier, explore age equity for Indigenous older adults living in urban Canada.

In this chapter, the authors examine the experiences of Indigenous older adults across cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, focusing on how ageing is shaped by both inclusion and exclusion within urban environments. While Canadian cities are often framed as “age-friendly,” the realities for Indigenous older adults reveal a far more complex picture, one that is deeply influenced by ongoing settler colonialism and its enduring effects on access to housing, health care, social supports, and community connection.

Across the literature and lived experiences shared, a clear pattern emerges. Indigenous older adults navigate urban ageing in ways that are simultaneously constrained and strengthened. Structural inequities, gaps in data, and culturally unsafe systems continue to marginalize Indigenous ageing. At the same time, culture, relationships, resilience, and agency remain central to how Indigenous older adults experience wellbeing in the city.

Importantly, the authors highlight how dominant approaches to “age-friendly communities” often fail to account for Indigenous realities. Standard metrics and statistics frequently overlook the diversity within Indigenous populations and can obscure the full scope of inequities experienced. As a result, policy and planning risk reinforcing exclusion rather than addressing it.

Rather than positioning Indigenous older adults solely through a lens of vulnerability, this chapter emphasizes the importance of culture, connection, and self-determination in reimagining urban ageing. Indigenous older adults are not only navigating systems shaped by colonialism, they are actively reshaping what it means to age well in the city.

The chapter concludes by calling for a reimagining of age-friendly communities, one that centers Indigenous knowledge, prioritizes equity, and addresses the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism, while also identifying critical gaps in research and data that must be addressed moving forward.

Read the full chapter to find out more! The chapter and the rest of our book can be found on the Bristol University Press Digital webpage